Religiosity, Denomination, and Anti-Immigrant Attitudes in Europe: Comparative Analysis on ESS Data

In this paper, the author analyzes the relationship between the religiosity of the Europeans and anti-immigrant attitudes using the European Social Survey (ESS) dataset. Religiousness is examined in terms of two major factors - religious affiliation and individual religiosity level. Both individual variables and their interaction effects are analyzed. In addition to the individual level, country variables are also taken into account - the historically dominant religion, the average level of religiosity, and several socio-economic indicators. Building on the social identity theory, religious compassion theory, and marginalization theory, the author, using regression analysis, reveals the links between explanatory variables and attitudes towards various immigrant groups. According to the analysis, self-identification with Christian denominations (Catholicism and Protestantism) is not in itself associated with anti-immigrant sentiments, while the level of religiosity plays a different role in different country contexts and in relation to different groups of immigrants.